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Common Green Smoothie Questions answered by Victoria Boutenko

VICTORIA: Smoothies can stay in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, but fresh is best. As soon as a smoothie is warmed to room temperature, it should be consumed.

QUESTION: How much green smoothie do you recommend I drink daily?

VICTORIA: In the beginning people tend to drink more green smoothies, sometimes up to two gallons per day depending on how acidic their body pH is. After several months the quantity goes down to 1-2 quarts per day.

QUESTION: I have been on raw food for eight years and feel that my body is very clean. Why do I feel nauseous from drinking wheatgrass juice?

VICTORIA: If you have read my book Green for Life, you are familiar with the part where I speak about all greens, without exception, containing alkaloids. Alkaloid build up is toxic. Wheatgrass also contains a small amount of alkaloids. If you begin to drink it on a regular basis, the alkaloids accumulate and the body rejects it. This is why people get nauseous after drinking wheatgrass regularly for a while. When they take a break and come back to it, they can tolerate it better. Many people do not consume enough greens, and due to the fact that wheatgrass juice is almost 100% chlorophyll, the benefits of chlorophyll override the drawback of poisoning by alkaloids. That means, that even though people still get the alkaloid poisoning, the presence of chlorophyll in their body still helps to heal cancer, makes the body more alkaline and has other healing effects. That is why the green smoothies are so helpful, because when one begins to use a larger variety of greens in the form of green smoothies, one doesn’t have to constantly drink wheatgrass juice. Just keep rotating and get as many different greens as you can.

QUESTION: I tested my urine and my saliva. My urine is very alkaline and my saliva is very acidic. I think I am still detoxing (four weeks raw now) because I have cold sores, rashes etc. Could that be why my saliva is acidic or is it not a good way to judge your PH level? I just don't understand why they are both so completely different.

VICTORIA: Measuring your body pH by testing your urine is much more accurate than testing saliva. Alkalinity in saliva appears only after having the body’s alkaline pH established for some time. Also, saliva changes more rapidly and more often than urine. You can do some experimenting: for example if you put a drop of honey on your tongue, the saliva instantly becomes very alkaline because the alkaline solution amylase (that helps digests sugar) will be present in the saliva. If you put a teaspoon of any green smoothie or wheatgrass in your mouth, your saliva instantly becomes acid, because in order to digest greens, the saliva first has to become acid. Of course, greens are alkaline-forming once digested. So, testing pH by checking saliva is tricky. It has to be a long time between meals, you have to have your mouth clean and empty, and not even have food in SIGHT. That is why I don’t recommend it. Urine doesn’t change by what we look at, and thus is more reliable. The most accurate time to test saliva for alkalinity is in the morning as soon as you wake up.

QUESTION: Why is it so important that humans model their diet after chimpanzees? From my understanding, they only live an average of 50 years. They are usually riddled with parasites too.

VICTORIA: Chimpanzees are genetically the closest creatures to humans. They share 99.4% of genes with humans. That is why, unfortunately, chimpanzees are used for medical research. However, chimpanzees have often demonstrated such a strong immunity, that doctors were not able to infect them with HIV or hepatitis C. In my book, I brought up the point that instead of making chimps ill with human diseases, researching how they are able to stay healthy may reveal immensely valuable information on human health. In captivity, chimpanzees do live much longer than in the wild because they are guarded against accidents and environmental dangers.

Chimpanzees are not only healthy, but have the ability to intuitively find and use healing herbs. Scientists from the Jane Goodall Institute described in their research that chimpanzees are familiar with natural ways of parasite control by eating medicinal herbs. On the other hand, any colonic therapist will tell you how so many humans are laden with all kinds of parasites.

QUESTION: I drove to three towns, at least eighty miles apart from each other and looked in more than five different health food stores. When I asked the produce person for lambsquarters, plantain, chickweed, stinging nettles, purslane, etc., they looked at me like I was nuts! For lambsquarters, they kept sending me to the meat department. Where, and how can one find the wild edible greens?

VICTORIA: Even though it can be difficult for one to buy wild edible greens in the store, one still would greatly benefit from consuming them. That is why I put wild edible greens in my smoothie recipes.

I don’t have a way of recommending which wild plants are edible in your area since I am unsure of what weeds grow in your area. The best thing to do is to talk to people who plant flowers and bushes in parks. They can usually identify edible plants quite well. Another way to find out which plants one can eat is to talk to farmers, who need help weeding their organic gardens. In the summer, my children pick lambsquarters and plantain from a local farmer who pays them to pluck these pesky weeds from his fields. Once you learn to recognize a couple of edible weeds, it’s a good idea to share your knowledge with others so that you can learn about sill more scrumptious plants. This year, I plan to plant lots weeds in my own garden. I will report back to you how that works out for me.

QUESTION: Do you think it is beneficial or helpful to add any fat to raw smoothies? I don't eat salads, so instead I just add a little fat, a couple tablespoons of flax seeds, or half an avocado, occasionally I will have a whole one if I'm feeling really decadent.

VICTORIA: Each person is unique and thus has different needs. Some people might need fat, however, fat does slow down the digestive process. You may add anything you want to your smoothie to make it suit your personal needs. As for me, I believe that Green Smoothies are a complete food.

QUESTION: Do you think it is better to use powdered greens in green smoothies as apposed to fresh greens?

VICTORIA: I think that if one remembers to rotate the greens they consume and drink at least one quart of green smoothie per day, they will receive an optimal amount of nutrients. I recommend leaving green powders for the times when green smoothies are not accessible for example, during travels. I do not think that dried greens are nearly as vibrant or nutritious as fresh greens. My daughter Valya recently decided to further explore the theory of dried versus fresh greens with a group of volunteers who were not susceptible to advertisements. It happened that my husband was invited to help out at a horse farm. Valya preformed an experiment by offering six horses the option eating green, professionally dried, high quality hay, (super food) or fresh kale, and grass. Six out of six horses chose the fresh greens over the dry hay. (heh-heh…)

QUESTION: How much greens does one really need? I generally consume a head of lettuce. Do you think this is enough?

VICTORIA: One needs fewer greens in the form of green smoothies than in the form of salad, because blended greens assimilate several times more thoroughly then chewed greens. People who have an acidic pH balance in their body could benefit from consuming up to 80% greens in their diet. When they reach a stage of balance, they will notice that they want less greens and less green smoothies, but they will enjoy them more than ever.

QUESTION: When greens are broken up in the blender, do they oxidize and lose most of their nutrients? Incidentally, I do consume a ton of greens by eating huge salads and juicing.

VICTORIA: In my book, Green For Life, I explain that in order to get nutrients from greens, every cell of the green leaf has to be ruptured. To get all of the nutrients from food by oral mastication, one would have to spend several hours a day chewing, and have extremely healthy teeth that are all in place, including wisdom teeth. By observing the results of those who regularly consume green smoothies, I now think that the assimilation of nutrients from smoothies is several times more efficient than from chewing greens. Of course, these numbers are different from person to person, but I estimate that two bunches of greens chewed are equal to approximately to half a bunch of greens blended (not juiced, because juice is missing an important ingredient: fiber). When I was juicing my greens on a daily basis, I noticed how quickly the green juice turned brown and began to taste bitter. This doesn’t appear to happen with blended greens, probably because of the large quantities of antioxidants in the fiber. Green smoothies continue to stay bright green and taste fresh for many hours if kept in a cool place.

QUESTION: I thought Victoria’s point for green smoothies being superior to green juices was lacking. One of the main benefits of juice is that it requires next to no digestion and can be absorbed and assimilated immediately into the bloodstream, allowing the digestive system to rest.

VICTORIA: I agree with Dr. Doug Graham that juices are a fractured food, which is missing an essential component—fiber. I believe that when we consume enough fiber, we take a load off of our organism by dramatically improving our elimination. Toxins build up in the colon. Fiber cleans them out. When most toxins have been removed by fiber, then the body has a greater ability to absorb nutrients, thus improving digestion. There are many more important benefits in having fiber. For example, in my previous newsletter, I cited research about good bacteria needing raw fiber from fruits and vegetables in our colon to be able to survive. These bacteria are linked to the B complex vitamins--another important issue. Juices are not a complete food; humans could not live on juices alone. Very often juices have unbalanced amounts of sugar. Contrary to juices, green smoothies are a complete food. Also, I have met people who went on prolonged juice fasts and saw no improvement in their hydrochloric acid.

QUESTION: How did Eskimos live without any greens?

VICTORIA: I was born on an island in the Far East in Russia and lived near many Eskimos tribes. My answer to your question is: One probably can live without eating greens, if he or she is ready to eat meat and fish that have been rotting for over two weeks on a daily basis. That was living food for the Eskimos I knew. In addition, they consumed moss called yagil, and probably other things that I never thought to ask about (I left the island when I was 16). In addition to that, their lifespan was usually less than 50 years.